Supreme Court Allows High Speed Car Chases

A few weeks ago the United States Supreme Court handed down a very interesting ruling concerning high-speed car chases. The question before the Court was whether a person injured during a high-speed car chase with police could sue the police for his injury. The case in question dealt with an individual who was trying to get away from the police. After several minutes of a high-speed chase (captured on this fascinating video), police decided to end the chase by nudging the fleeing suspect's car, causing the suspect to lose control and crash. The fleeing suspect was severely injured and sued police. The Court found the suspect could not sue police for his injuries. But what really makes this case interesting is 1) the video and 2) Justice John Paul Stevens' dissenting opinion where he criticizes the Court for engaging fact finding. Students of Common Law Legal System will remember that appellate courts in the United States generally don't engage in fact finding. That is job of juries and trial court judges. But in this case Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion for the Court, used evidence that was not used by lower courts (the video) in making his decision. Stevens said that the Supreme Court should not be engaged in this kind of fact finding. His colleagues (and I would argue the Constitution), however, did not agree. Stevens was the lone dissenter in this case.